Three Recent Extreme Floods in Bangladesh: A Hydro-Meteorological Analysis

Bangladesh is highly vulnerableto floods due to its geographical location at the deltas of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna (GBM) rivers. About 92.5 per cent of the area of three basins lies outside the boundaries of the country. More than 80 per cent of the annual precipitation of Bangladesh occurs in the monsoon period between June and September. The hydro-meteorological characteristics of the three river basins are unique and they often cause large to extremely large floods in Bangladesh. It is possible that these floods could inundate 70 per cent of the country and the physical damage could be very serious for the economy of Bangladesh with its low gross domestic product (GDP). In 1987, 1988 and 1998, Bangladesh experienced three extreme floods, leaving trails of devastation and human misery. In this article it is demonstrated that these floods differed in terms of magnitude, extent, depth and duration. The external and internal hydro-meteorological dynamics were also different.     

Regional Cooperation in Flood Management in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Region: Bangladesh Perspective

Bangladesh is known to behighly vulnerable to floods. Frequent floods have put enormous constraints on its development potential. Unfortunately, the frequency of high intensity floods is on the rise. So far the country has struggled to put a sizeable infrastructure in place to prevent flooding in may parts of the country with limited success. In recent times, it was found that losses of lives and valuable assets could be significantly minimized by implementing non-structural measures including the improvement of flood forecasting and warning system. The existing flood forecasting and warning capacity of Bangladesh could be more effective if real-timedata could be acquired from upstreamareas within the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) catchment, where runoff is generated. In order to do so, Bangladesh needs to foster an effective regional cooperationwith the other GBM regional countries of India, Nepal, and Bhutan. This article examines how GBM regional cooperation could be useful towards managing floods in Bangladesh in particularand the region in general.     

Declining groundwater level and aquifer dewatering in Dhaka metropolitan area,Bangladesh: causes and quantification

Large abstraction by water-wells has been causing a linear to exponential drop in groundwater level and substantial aquifer dewatering in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The city is almost entirely dependent on groundwater, which occurs beneath the area in an unconsolidated Plio-Pleistocene sandy aquifer. Analysis shows that the pattern of water-level change largely replicates the patterns of change in the rate of groundwater abstraction. Contribution of the aquifer storage to the abstraction is estimated to be more than 15% in the year 2002. This abstraction has caused a sharp drop in water level throughout the city and turned into two cones of depression in the water level. Upper parts of the aquifer are already dewatered throughout the area, with the exception of part of the northeast and southeast corner of the city. It is calculated that about 41 million cubic metres (MCM) of the aquifer dewatered by the year 1988, which increased to 2,272 MCM in the year 2002. Water-level decline may increase non-linearly due to limiting vertical recharge in areas where the aquifer is dewatered and may severely threaten the sustainability of the aquifer.     

September 2004 Flood Event in Southwestern Bangladesh: A Study of its Nature,Causes, and Human Perception and Adjustments to a New Hazard

This paper examines the nature and causes of September 2004 hazardous flood that affected the dry and drought prone southwestern region of Bangladesh. It also examines human perception of this new hazard and their methods of adjustments to its negative impacts. Field research for this study includes personal interviews of 453 victim families living in four thanas (lowest administrative units) in Jessore and Satkhira districts of southwestern Bangladesh. Findings of the study suggest that all victim respondents viewed this flood event as a natural hazard, which has caused severe damage to standing crops, fish ponds, permanent trees and homesteads, and deteriorated human health and sanitation conditions. Its long-term impacts on fish farming, soil quality degradation, as well as changing land use/land coverage are also noteworthy but yet to be adequately explored. Both perceived and scientific causes of this flood event include high rainfall for a week before the flood, unusual movement of low pressure system into the affected area, cloudy weather and low evaporation, siltation of the regional riverbeds, and rolling back of the Ganges River water through the Ichamati and Bhagirati rivers. These factors also caused hazardous flooding at the same time in the Ichamati and Bhagirati Rivers and their floodplains in the West Bengal province of India. To release the overflow of flood water inside India, the Indian border patrol breached the Ichamati river embankment in several places along Satkhira and Jessore international border which had aggravated the flood situation in the study area.     

Arsenic toxicity of groundwater in parts of the Bengal basin in India and Bangladesh: the role of Quaternary stratigraphy and Holocene sea-level fluctuation

 Arsenic toxicity in groundwater in the Ganges delta and some low-lying areas in the Bengal basin is confined to middle Holocene sediments. Dissected terraces and highlands of Pleistocene and early Holocene deposits are free of such problems. Arsenic-rich pyrite or other arsenic minerals are rare or absent in the affected sediments. Arsenic appears to occur adsorbed on iron hydroxide-coated sand grains and clay minerals and is transported in soluble form and co-precipitated with, or is scavenged by, Fe(III) and Mn(IV) in the sediments. It became preferentially entrapped in fine-grained and organic-rich sediments during mid-Holocene sea-level rises in deltaic and some low-lying areas of the Bengal basin. It was liberated subsequently under reducing conditions and mediated further by microbial action. Intensive extraction of groundwater for irrigation and application of phosphate fertilizer possibly triggered the recent release of arsenic to groundwater. This practice has induced groundwater flow, mobilizing phosphate derived from fertilizer, as well as from decayed organic matter, which has promoted the growth of sediment biota and aided the further release of arsenic. However, the environment is not sufficiently reducing to mobilize iron and arsenic in groundwater in the Ganges floodplains upstream of Rajmahal. Thus, arsenic toxicity in the groundwater of the Bengal basin is caused by its natural setting, but also appears to be triggered by recent anthropogenic activities. Received: 23 August 1999 · Accepted: 16 November 1999     

Recent changes in flood risk in the Gran La Plata,Buenos Aires province,Argentina: causes and management strategy

The paper analyses the causes of flood occurrence in the Gran La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, and the changes that have occurred since the 1970s. The area is characterized by serious deficiencies in the use and management of water resources. The main factors are: (1) flood risk information is not updated; (2) urban building organization does not consider the flood risk; (3) the topography and other physical features are not taken into account in urban development. This research considers some specific problems, especially in data availability, and suggests ways to solve them, including improved analytical methodology. One of the main objectives is to analyse flood risk in social terms, producing a map of flood risk from the “human social vulnerability” point of view. The results suggest that flood risk has increased since the 1980s and that this is associated with changes in precipitation patterns that have also been aggravated by lack of controls on urban development. The poorer areas with the lowest level of infrastructure and public services, many of them developed over the last quarter-century, are especially vulnerable.